14. Generalissimo Hot Guy

FOURTEEN

GENERALISSIMO HOT GUY

I t was a little after 7:00, our shift was over, so Harlow and I were walking to our cars.

I had a lot on my mind.

The least of which was that, when she came on shift, I’d quizzed Shanti about the Oasis Christmas decorations.

She’d told me that Bill and Zach (our self-appointed community organizers and Oasis shared-space decorators) had asked Dreamweaver Inc. (our landlord) if they could put up holiday decorations.

Dreamweaver had answered by giving them a budget and the number to a storage unit where they could haul the stuff they bought when the holiday was over.

Yeah.

It sounded crazy, but our landlord was just that awesome.

As much as I could still marvel at how awesome our landlord was, again, that was the least of what was on my mind.

The majority was twofold.

First, that morning I hadn’t done what I promised myself I would do. Jump out of bed, hit the grocery store, then go back to Eric’s and make the mocha icebox cake so it had plenty of time to ferment (or whatever) by that evening, so Eric and I could eat it.

The second was, Eric had come to lunch, but I hadn’t heard from him since, and before he left from lunch, we hadn’t made plans for that night.

Things had been intense, and we’d been pretty up in each other’s space even before I got my head out of my ass. So maybe he needed a break.

But I thought he’d been pretty taken by my nightie, my copious pastitsio consumption interrupted his plans for me (and I would be remiss not to note that Eric had three helpings too), and I’d gotten the impression that morning he was all in to get back on track with those plans, ASAFP.

Despite wanting to see him, if he needed space, I could give him space. It’d give me time to get to the grocery store to get the cake ingredients and throw that baby together.

Man, I sure was glad I owned a springform pan, even if I’d never used it.

Until now.

Eric and I could have some time apart, then I could ask him over for dinner tomorrow and manage our consumption of the cake so neither of us passed out, and then we could have wild, sweaty, awesome, delayed-gratification sex.

We could have more cake after shared orgasms.

This was my thought when I heard Harlow cry out.

My heart stopped at the sound, I whirled, and just caught her being dragged away by a shadowy figure.

I started to take off after them, but then I saw nothing because a hood was thrown over my head, one of my hands was yanked behind my back, then the other, and I heard the zip ties zip on my wrists…

And in my ear, an ultra-deep, rough man’s voice said, “Be good, Angel.”

Oh…

Shit .

* * *

After the guy shoved me into a car, we took off, and I realized Harlow wasn’t with us (because I heard no whimpering, sobbing or my bestie calling out “Jess, are you there?”), I asked, “What did you do with my friend?”

And got the answer, “She’s fine. We only want you.”

Terrific.

That was when I decided to keep quiet, expend my energy in not freaking out and save as much of it as I could to handle whatever was about to befall me.

I had no idea what this was or who was behind it. It could be we missed some of the human traffickers the Angels and the Hottie Squad took down a few months ago, and the ones we missed were after payback. It could be the bad guys who were abducting people from the homeless camp somehow got a lock on me, and for some reason, targeted me.

I just knew it wasn’t a random assault because he’d called me Angel.

But why only me?

Whatever it was, I had to have my head together to handle it.

My crossbody was vibrating like crazy against my hip, probably Harlow frantically calling if they did let her go, but since my hands were zip-tied behind my back, and I could feel someone was sitting beside me in the car, I could do nothing about it.

The vibrating pretty much didn’t stop the entire short drive to wherever we went, so I had a feeling Harlow got in touch with somebody else, or somebodies plural, and now several of my loved ones were trying to get hold of me, probably scared out of their brains.

So, if the hood over my head and the zip ties biting into my wrists didn’t piss me off enough (and, mark my words, they seriously pissed me off ), the people I loved being freaked on my behalf did.

The car stopped, I was pulled out by my arm, and I heard the car drive away as I was marched somewhere. I knew when we went inside, even if I didn’t hear a door open.

Though, I heard it close.

Shit.

I was shoved down in a chair that was surprisingly comfy and plush. It felt like an armchair.

“Lean forward,” the ultra-deep, rough voice ordered.

I wasn’t sure if I should do what he said, and in my hesitation, he curled his fingers around my shoulder and pressed me forward.

It wasn’t violent and it didn’t hurt. It was actually kind of gentle, which threw me.

Then I heard a snap, and my wrists were freed. One hand was seized, though, but only for me to hear another snap, and the tie was off. Ditto on my other wrist.

And then the hood was yanked away, my hair went flying, but the instant I oriented myself, I saw my brother sitting on the end of a coffee table right in front of me.

He looked good. Healthy. His hair was a bit longer, but he worked it. In fact, his shoulders were a bit wider too. And his forearms, that I could see since the long sleeves of his black thermal were pushed up, were all thick and wiry and veined.

And there was a tattoo I’d never seen on one of them.

Even so.

“The fuck?” I whispered.

“Could ask you the same thing, Angel ,” Jeff clipped. He then kept talking. Irately. “Have you lost your mind? Tangling with sex traffickers?”

Was he…?

Was I…?

Did he just…?

I surged to my feet, shouting, “Are you freaking kidding me ?”

He surged to his too and got in my face.

“Calm down and sit down, Jess,” he ordered.

“Oh no. That ship has sailed, baby bro.” I got in his face. “I’ve been looking for you for six months !”

“Brother. Time,” I heard murmured, and I jerked my attention to our audience.

Or, I should say, I jerked my attention up, up and then up to the only other person there.

He was tall, taller than Mace, and Mace was super tall (with Brady and Knox being the second tallest, both maybe an inch shorter than Mace, Roam being the third—yes, I could call out the order of their tallness, and their hotness, Eric was numero uno hottie (obvs), but he was in the Cap zone in tallness, in other words, around six one).

Though, this guy had bulk Mace did not have, all of it muscle, which Mace did have, just not as much of it.

He was also spectacularly good looking. Like, take your breath away. There was maybe some Latino in him; his hair was dark, his skin was olive, and his eyes were a crystalline amber that almost didn’t seem real.

If I wasn’t saving my nighties for Eric, I’d so totally go there.

“I take it you’re Mountain,” I sniped.

He grinned, big and white, and no one but me would ever know, because I was never going to breathe a word, but that grin was so good, no matter the shitty mood I was in, my clitoris tingled.

“My friends call me Javi,” he shared.

So I was right about the Latino.

“I have a bone to pick with you,” I declared.

Jeff stepped between us and stated, “No, you don’t.”

I looked to my brother. “I know you’re not hiding anything from him, so you can just step aside while I have a few words with Generalissimo Hot Guy here.”

Javi chuckled.

Hang on a second.

He thought I was amusing ?

I glared at him.

“I’m fine, Jess,” Jeff asserted, and my attention shifted back to him. “So you don’t have to worry.”

“Well, thanks so much for sharing that info after I searched high and low for you for six months, talked to the police, badgered your friends, forged a friendship with Homer, the King of the Homeless Camp, and yeah…” I saved the best for last. “I was forced to have several conversations with Mom and Dad.”

He knew how much that sucked, but he didn’t even flinch.

He just said, “I’m not five. I can look after myself.”

Here we go.

“And you’re here because I have a few things to say to you,” Jeff went on.

“Lay it on me,” I invited, but I wasn’t done. “So you can get over it, and I can share the not-so-few things I have to say to you.”

“You have to stop with the Angels business,” he decreed.

“Oh yeah? I’ll one up you. You have to stop with this Shadow Soldier business,” I retorted.

Jeff shook his head. “I’ve been trained. I know what I’m doing. I have men around me who know what they’re doing. You have none of that shit,” he shot back.

“No offense,” I said to Javi, then to Jeff, “but my concern remains unassuaged that some vigilante street gang trained you in their vigilante street law missions.”

“No offense taken,” Javi murmured, still sounding amused.

I shot him another glare.

I moved it to Jeff when he started talking.

“We know what we’re doing,” Jeff retorted.

“I’ve heard. Mad respect,” I aimed that last at Javi, then I went back to Jeff. “But lest we forget, you have a certain issue that makes this kind of shit dangerous for you. Or, more dangerous than it already just is.”

“It’s managed.”

Could a head actually explode?

“Managed?” I whispered. “ Managed? ” I shouted.

“Keep your voice down,” Jeff hissed.

“Fuck that, fuck this, and fuck your hood and zip ties. I mean, what the hell was that?” I demanded.

“I asked Javi to do that so you’d see how vulnerable you are.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but it didn’t make me feel vulnerable. It pissed me off.”

“Only you could get pissed when someone kidnaps you from a parking lot,” Jeff muttered.

“Jeff, let’s try to focus here,” I suggested impatiently.

“I am focused, Jess. I got your message.” He put his hands out to his sides. “As you can see, I’m fine. Stop worrying. Stop trawling homeless camps in the middle of the fucking night. Stop hanging with hookers?—”

Boy, they’d been watching us, for certain.

“Sex workers,” I corrected.

“Whatever,” he replied.

“Not whatever. They’re my friends. And I’m older than you, and all grown up, so you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“I’m all grown up too, Jessie, not that you ever noticed.”

I snapped my mouth shut, wounded.

My brother didn’t seem to realize he’d cut me.

He asked, “Can you imagine what it feels like to have everyone fucking taking care of you all the fucking time? Especially you. Your whole life, all you seemed to be about is getting in my shit. You live and breathe to take care of me like I’m still a kid, and you need to get the fuck over it.”

I swayed back at the power of that blow.

“Brother,” Javi said in a low, dude, uncool voice.

Jeff visibly reined it in.

But the damage was done.

Because, I’ll remind you, I was stubborn and could hold a grudge.

And this grudge was fixing to last the rest of my days.

I looked beyond him to Javi. “Am I free to leave?”

“They’re comin’ for you,” he replied, and to Jeff. “Means we gotta bounce, man.”

“Who’s coming for me?” I asked.

“The Nightingale men,” Javi said. “They track your car. They also track your phone.”

My phone?

“It’s a good neighborhood, they’ll find you in here, but you can wait on the sidewalk,” Javi continued as he and Jeff made a move toward the door.

Jeff turned back, so Javi did too.

“Jess—” my brother began.

“Save it,” I bit off. “I don’t get it, because I don’t have it, but I can empathize that your illness sucks.”

“Yeah, you don’t get?—”

I cut him off.

“But I’ll leave you with this. My life isn’t about you, Jeff. It’s clear your head is so far up your own ass, you don’t realize that. That said, when you disappear for six months, and I’m looking under overpasses and behind dumpsters and spending money I can’t afford on bottled water to earn the trust of a community of people who don’t have a lot of trust left in them, it’s because I love you. It’s because you’re my brother. It’s because you were the only solid thing I had my entire fucking life, and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. I know the man you are. I know you’re smart and capable. You aren’t the only one who has issues, you just have a particular one that needs managing. And yeah, I worry about that. Not about you managing it, just about you needing to cope with it. What you’ve been so fucking selfish you didn’t see was, I have issues too. And they don’t always involve you.”

With that, I pushed through them and got to an open-air breezeway of an apartment complex.

I was stopped when Jeff caught my arm.

I looked at my brother’s handsome face, and it almost broke me, because I loved him so much, and he’d just laid me out. Fortunately, being as insanely pissed as I was held me together.

“I just wanted to give you a break from me,” he said quietly.

“I didn’t need a break from you,” I replied. “But I guess now I need to figure out what to do after losing you.”

“You haven’t lost me, Jessie,” he whispered.

“Let me rephrase. Now you need to figure out what to do after throwing me away.”

Jeff sure flinched at that.

Even Javi grunted at the weight of my blow.

I was so angry and hurt, I was beyond caring.

I yanked my arm from his hold, slid my gaze through Javi, who was sporting an open look of concern that made his male beauty exponentially more beautiful, and he had it aimed at me, and then I turned and jogged in the direction I was brought in.

I hit the sidewalk, stood there and pulled my phone out of my bag to call an Uber.

And yeah.

I had seventeen missed calls and not a small amount of texts.

I was about to hit go on a ride, then start phoning people to tell them I was okay, when a line of Denalis sped down the block and came to a dramatic halt opposite me.

The men rolled out, and they did “as a unit” a whole lot better than us Angels did (for your information, “the men” were Mace, Cap, Roam, Knox, Liam…and Eric).

The first ones formed a huddle around me.

Eric got in my space, cupped my face in both hands and dipped close to me, his eyes roaming everywhere.

“You okay?” he asked.

“So you do track my phone.”

“Answer me, babe.”

“I’m fine. They didn’t hurt me. It was my brother. By the way, I believe Mountain’s first name is Javier, since he goes by Javi.”

A quick glance over my head, then back to me. “They were here?”

“Yep.”

All the men but Eric took off.

I pulled out of Eric’s hold, turned to look over my shoulder, and called after them, “You won’t find them!”

This had no effect. They kept motoring, or, I should say, they took off so fast, I couldn’t see any of them, so I turned back to Eric.

“Are you okay?” he repeated.

“Apparently, I was a pain in my brother’s ass, which he decided to interpret as needing to give me a break from him. Though, he made it clear that mostly his vanishing was about me being a pain in his ass.”

Eric’s mouth tightened.

“I really want to go home, Turner,” I stated.

He slid an arm around my shoulders, came to my side so he could tuck me into his, and murmured, “Then let’s get you home.”

* * *

Eric didn’t take me to my Mini that was still at The Surf Club.

He took me to the Oasis.

He did the arm around my shoulders thing to the security gate, whereupon he punched the code in.

“You know the code?” I asked.

“All the men know the code,” he answered.

Cars tracked. Phones tracked. Security codes disseminated.

Well, tonight proved it was good they kept an eye on us. Because if that situation had been about someone with an unhappy (for me) message to deliver, they wouldn’t have had the time to alter the course of my life and mental health in delivering it before the guys got there.

We walked in, and I stopped dead at the holiday display before me.

There were illuminated, fake evergreen boughs looped the entirety of the upper walkway. At the top of each loop at each post on the railing, there was a big, red velvet bow.

The annual flowers in the planters had been switched out to poinsettias or baby pine trees, and those had Christmas lights too.

The green and red plaid, giganto baubles in one corner of the courtyard were mimicked by giganto red-and-green striped baubles in the other. These were illuminated from the inside.

There were elegant, life-sized white deer positioned here and there, and they had lights in their antlers.

There were lit wreathes with red bows attached to all the standing light fixtures.

In the big trees that shaded the place, there was an abundance of Christmas lights, and even if the trees were tall, the lights were everywhere , trunk to tip.

There was also a massive Christmas tree—seriously, it had to be at least sixteen feet tall—festooned with white lights, red baubles and red berries with fat, cascading red ribbons waving down from the huge-ass bow at top, towering over the north side of the pool.

And down one side, there was a gold Menorah that had to be at least three feet high, five feet wide, with none of the candles lit because Hanukkah hadn’t started yet.

It was a holiday wonderland, Phoenician style.

Man, Bill and Zach could work it .

I saw the renos on the pool had begun again after the Thanksgiving break, and the pebble finish had been sprayed that day. So once that cured, and the cool deck was installed, we’d have our pool back.

Last, at one of our new, fancy outdoor tables sat Luna, Raye, Harlow, Martha, Alexis, Daisy, Shirleen, and gracing us with her megastar presence was Stella Gunn.

Oh, and Jacob was pacing angrily.

They all stood at our approach, and we barely made it to them before Jacob clipped, “What are you women into?”

But Harlow hit me like a rocket.

I went back on a foot, but luckily didn’t go down before I wrapped my arms around her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She leaned back but didn’t let me go. “Are you?”

No.

I was not.

My brother was a dick.

“It was my brother. He was trying to teach me a lesson in vulnerability.”

She screwed up her face in anger, and totally. Jinx was right.

She cute.

Shirleen got to me, and with a hand at my back, she led me to the table, murmuring, “Come sit down, child. Linda’s bringing hot chocolate.”

“I’ll go tell her to make an extra couple mugs,” Alexis said, and dashed toward Linda’s door.

I sat down, assuring them all, “I’m fine.” I looked among my girls. “And the bitches are right. Mountain is muy guapo .”

“Oh my God, you met him?” Luna asked.

“Yep,” I answered, my attention having been taken by Eric, who’d left me and was having a seemingly intense conversation with Stella by the plaid Christmas baubles.

“Who’s Mountain?” Daisy asked.

“He’s a street vigilante,” I told her.

“Ah,” she said, entirely unaffected by this information.

“Jesus Christ,” Jacob bit off, then tramped to where Eric was with Stella, probably to ask what Eric was doing about my insane life, rather than asking me, seeing as it was my insane life.

Men.

“I’m thinking there’s something we don’t know about you girls,” Martha stated, her eyes pinging indignantly between all of us.

No one said anything.

Martha harrumphed, but surprisingly didn’t push it.

Guess there were advantages to being abducted.

My eyes strayed back to Eric and Stella.

Jacob was striding toward Linda’s apartment, but Eric and Stella were still at it.

“Don’t you worry, sugar bunches of oats,” Daisy said, reaching out to pat my hand.

“Worry about what?” I asked.

She jerked her blonde coif toward Eric and Stella, it trembled seismically, and she said, “Ain’t nothin’ but a thing.”

“What are you talking about?” Luna asked Daisy.

Raye had her lips sealed tight, which meant Cap had told her about Eric and Stella’s history.

“Eric and Stella used to date,” I announced.

Harlow gasped.

Luna shot wide eyes to me.

“Your man used to date a rock star?” Martha asked.

I decided against telling them the undercover part and just shrugged.

Daisy waved a bedazzled-tipped hand in front of her enormous bosoms. “It was eons ago.” She leaned into the table. “Stella’s havin’ flashbacks. The least fun part of the Rock Chick ride was getting kidnapped.” She paused to consider. “Also nearly crashing over a bridge onto a highway during a high-speed chase. That wasn’t a barrel of laughs.”

Martha stared at her and did the sign of the cross, and as far as I knew, she wasn’t Catholic.

Linda, with Alexis and Jacob in tow, showed with a tray of hot chocolate.

Linda was a retired schoolteacher, the oldest Oasis resident, both in her time spent renting there and her age, and she was a sweetheart.

I adored Linda, and not just because she spooned a mound of marshmallow fluff on the top of her hot chocolate.

But in that moment, I etched that particular trait high on my list of why I adored her.

“Oh, Jessie, I’m glad you’re okay. Getting snatched in a parking lot. What on earth?” Linda asked as she put her tray down.

I reached for a mug and was about to say something to make her feel better when the security gate slammed back on the fence, making a loud bang.

We all turned to see Tex plodding toward us, a man on a mission.

“I…you…I…” he blathered in a boom after he reached the table. “ We haven’t even had our meeting yet! ”

“Tex, I’m okay.”

He glowered at me, then leaned into me, reached beyond me, snatched up a mug, and I watched as he did a slurp (the fluff) then dropped his head back, downing the hot drink in one.

He slammed the mug down, pounded a fist on his chest, and declared, “I’m unprepared. This trip, I forgot to bring my grenades with me to Phoenix.”

At this, Jacob took a mug, handed it to Alexis, took another one, then grabbed Alexis’s hand and dragged her to his apartment.

On the way, she waved her mug at us and called, “’Night all! Glad you’re okay, Jessie!”

Jacob slammed the door behind them, and I heard the locks go.

“He’s a Hot Bunch boy without bein’ a Hot Bunch boy, that one is,” Daisy decreed.

Eric and Stella joined us.

“Glad to see you’re okay, Jess,” Stella said.

“Thanks, Stella,” I replied, shot her a smile and then took a sip of my cocoa.

“Were you kidnapped?” Luna asked Stella.

“I never thought I’d say this to a living soul, but you girls really need to read those books,” Stella replied.

I was thinking I should.

I would look at it as a form of training.

“You all good?” Eric asked the table at large.

“With what?” Luna asked back.

“With knowing Jess is all right,” Eric explained.

“I’m good,” Luna said.

“Me too,” Raye put in.

“It wasn’t fun, but it’s over”—Harlow lifted her mug—“and we have cocoa.”

“You got cocoa, and you’re downright loco ,” Martha decreed.

Shirleen looked to Daisy. “I forgot how crazy this all seems in the beginning.”

“I’m havin’ a flashback too, since I was introduced to it when my Marcus kidnapped Jet,” Daisy replied.

“I forgot about that,” Shirleen murmured in her mug.

Eric took my hand and pulled me out of my chair.

He then pulled me toward the stairs.

I waved my mug behind me and called, “I’ll bring this back clean, Linda.”

“I’m not worried, hon,” Linda called back.

“’Night, everybody!” I kept calling when we got to the stairs.

“’Night!” everybody called back.

Eric dragged me to my door while I took in the glow of the lights and the holiday setting from above.

And seriously.

Zach and Bill had vision.

“Key,” Eric grunted.

He let my hand go so I could pull out my key.

He took it from me to open the door while I said, “I need to go get my car, Turner.”

He looked at me, looked at my keychain, pulled off the fob, went to the railing and whistled.

Tex tipped his head toward us and bellowed, “Yo!”

Eric tossed the fob down, Tex caught it, and Eric yelled, “Someone needs to get Jess’s car.”

Tex raised a hand to his forehead in a salute.

I took that as Tex’s version of Gotcha !

Eric pulled me into my apartment.

And uh-oh.

He also slammed the door.